Porsche Needed 395 Laps And 500 Gallons Of Fuel To Win Le Mans

Not to discredit all the success Audi has had at the 24 Hours of Le Mans over the last several years, but there’s a sense of rightness in the world since Porsche won for the first time in 17 years earlier this month. Luke Skywalker is a Jedi; The Cubs never win the World Series; Kale is gross; Porsche wins Le Mans. It’s the way things are and should be.

To commemorate the win, Porsche has released a wonderfully geeky list of facts and figures that demonstrate what it takes to win at Le Mans. For instance, Porsche really won this race in the pits. The three 919s spent a total of 95 minutes on pit lane, while the next best three-car team (Audi) was there for over 130 minutes. It helped that the only parts that needed changing were the No.18’s nose twice and the rear wing and engine cover on the No.19, which was done as a precaution during a full-course yellow. You can read the whole thing in the press release below.

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Why it matters

This was probably one of the most highly anticipated 24LMs in recent memory and it more than lived up to its billing, with Earl Bamber, Nico Hülkenberg and Nick Tandy taking the No.19 2015 Porsche 919 Hybrid to a hard-fought overall victory. The fact that the three were non-regular-season drivers hired to drive the third 919 at Le Mans made the win all the more impressive. Nico also became the second active Formula 1 driver to win Le Mans after Johnny Herbert did it in 1991.

Despite some reliability issues in the first two WEC rounds at Silverstone and Spa, the Porsches were utterly bombproof at Le Mans. If you watched the race unfold, you were probably waiting for something to go wrong with the two leading Porsches, but it never happened. The No.19 crossed the line after 24 hours and completed 395 laps, just two shy of the distance record. The No.17 Porsche of Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber finished one lap down, while the No.7 Audi of André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer finished two laps down.

Press Release

On Sunday, 14th June 2015, the trio of Earl Bamber (NZ), Nico Hülkenberg (GER) and Nick Tandy (GBR) took the 17th overall victory for Porsche at the Le Mans 24-Hours. They were followed across the line by the sister car of Timo Bernhard (GER), Brendon Hartley (NZ) and Mark Webber (AUS). This made it the fourth one-two result for the brand after achieving this in 1971, 1987 and 1998. But there are more interesting facts and figures about the race.

• The winning team completed 395 laps (5,382,82 kilometres). This year’s race was only two laps short of the longest distance covered in Le Mans back in 2010.

• The average speed of the winning Porsche 919 Hybrid was 224.2 km/h.

• The highest top speed of a Porsche 919 Hybrid in the race was 340,2 km/h and done by Mark Webber on Saturday at 16:40 hrs.

• The Porsche 919 Hybrid recuperated and used 2,22 kWh (8 megajoule) per lap. If it was a power plant, a family home could be supplied with electricity for three months.

• The head count for the Porsche Team’s operational crew was 120 people.

• The Porsche Team made 90 pit stops, 30 per car.

• At 26 of these stops tyres and drivers were also changed.

• The longest distance covered with one set of tyres was 54 laps for all three cars. In car number 17 Mark Webber did this ultra long run, in car number 18 it was Neel Jani and in the number 19 prototype it was Nico Hülkenberg.

• 116 tyres in total were used by all three Porsche 919 Hybrids over the race distance.

• A tyre on a rim weighs 19,9 kilograms. This means, just in relation to wheels, the mechanics moved 2,308.4 kilograms.

• The fastest pit stop, including a tyre and driver change, by the Porsche Team was 1:13.9 minutes.

• The fastest stop for refuelling was done in 51,3 seconds.

• In total all three Porsche 919 Hybrids spent 95 minutes and 36 seconds in the pits. The time for the second best crew entering three cars was over 130 minutes.

• The longest time behind the wheel of all nine Porsche LMP1 drivers was for Neel Jani with ten hours and ten minutes. In the winning car it was Nico Hülkenberg who drove most (eight hours, 52 minutes).

• Mark Webber lost the most weight of all nine drivers. When the race began he weighed 81.2 kilograms (including race gear and helmet), after his final stint the scales stopped at 78.2 kilograms.

• The drivers had 0.85 litres of drink on board for each stint. The drink bottle was changed at every refuelling stop.

• Almost no parts had to be changed during the race. After going off the track, the number 18 car had a new nose twice. On car number 19 at eight in the morning the team did a precautionary engine cover and rear wing change when it didn’t cost any time during a safety car period.

• During the 24 hours each Porsche 919 Hybrid had a refill of one litre of oil.

• For the best possible visibility each of the three prototypes had four tear-offs on the windscreens, which were removed one after the other.

• The highest ambient temperature during the race was 25 degrees Celsius at 16:00 hrs on Saturday. The coolest part of the race was at night between 03:00 and 07:00 hrs with 16 degrees Celsius.

• The highest cockpit temperature was 27 degree Celsius.

• The night was eight hours long with sunset at 21:59 hrs and sunrise at 05:59 hrs.

• 13.5 gigabytes of data per car have been transmitted to the pits during the 24 hours.

• The safety cars came out four times. Including the so-called slow zones – speed limits at certain parts of the track – the race was neutralized for a total of 195 minutes.

• After three rounds of the FIA World Endurance Championship, with double points in Le Mans, Porsche now leads the championship with 140 points, followed by Audi (124) and Toyota (71).